King Liar Review

The names Sidhique & Lal was a household one to Malayalee audience couple of decades back and even now. Their reunion was something that we all were anxiously waiting for all these years. But it took twenty two years for one of the best and top directorial duo from Mollywood to come back and join together for another film. The talented and successful directors who were instrumental in some evergreen blockbusters like Godfather, In Harihar Nagar and Ramjirao Speaking to name a few return together (not completely but only partially) for King Liar.

One cannot be faulted for the huge expectation for King Liar considering Sidhique & Lal are back together after a gap of more than two decades. Lal direct Dileep in King Liar that has story by Sidhique and screenplay written jointly by Sidhique and Lal. (Credits for dialogues are given to Bibin Chandran).

On to the film now, I will say half of the film is a clean entertainer with lot of funny moments created by Dileep-Balu pairing which was being tried for the first time. The other half narrated in the backdrop of a fashion world has little humour compared to the first half and is having a more serious tone in it. So King Liar is an entertainer that is watchable for its comedy part.

Personally for me I enjoyed the first half and the latter stages were not that appealing for me and was quite predictable in terms of the ending and storyline. The story revolves around Sathyanarayanan who is a master in telling lies and fooling people. Someone notice this ability in him and assign him a job which is what is seen in the remaining portion of the film.

Screenplay has given more prominence for humour in the first half and this has worked out well and packaged nicely focusing primarily on the comic timing of Dileep, his peculiar mannerisms and dialogue delivery. Balu makes the funny side looked complete. I won’t say each and every comedy scenes were rib tickling. Some were substandard ones while others were good for a laugh. The romantic side of the story narrated with a pinch of humour in it looked less convincing.

Sidhique-Lal’s earlier flicks were cult movies in their own genre and hence there is no scope for a comparison here as King Liar is different from those movies and its not fair to compare. If we do that, then there will only be disappointment.

The role and mannerisms of Sathyanarayanan is something that puts Dileep in his comfort zone and he was in his elements with his humorous act. Balu perhaps is casted for the first time as a combination with Dileep and it was a good choice as their combination scenes evoked good dose of laughter.

Madonna Sebastian playing the character of Anjali and the love interest of our protagonist was comfortable in that character and at the same time looked beautiful on screen.

Lal who had a major part to play in the second half appearing as Anand Varma, the fashion tycoon was suited for that role had a good screen presence while Asha Sharath played his wife in a glamorous makeover as Devika.

Background score is composed by Deepak Dev and it was not a bad effort at all. Alex Paul returns to the music scene after a break and his songs were not commendable but not bad either.

The expectation for this film was already on a high for the reason already mentioned above. The quality of humour from Sidhique and Lal had a high standard and is enjoyable even now. So don’t go for a comparison here. King Liar as an all round Dileep show is a reasonably good treat for the vacation season.

My advice is that the level of expectation pegged at an unlimited level should be brought down before watching this film. That will make the flick to be a watchable entertainer. I enjoyed the film though not fully but nevertheless not disappointed either.